The Sweetest Condition
by Abiona
Summary: Blaise (from NW: Spellbinder) & Nick (from SC)... a pairing that came up in an RPG I'm in. I liked it so much that I decided to write a fic! Please R/R :o) By the by... the story will be progressing to the R rating, soon I think.
1. Prelude

Here are the lyrics to _The Sweetest Condition, by Depeche Mode.  A wonderful little ditty suggested to me by my friend Amy for my story.  Thanks chica!_

_Taken in by the delicate noise  
Knocked to the ground by the subtle thunder  
Shackled and bound by the sound of your voice  
Wandering around in silent wonder  
__   
__What chance did I have  
With the silver moon  
Hanging in the sky  
Opening old wounds  
__   
__Taking hold of the hem of your dress  
Cleanliness only comes in small doses  
Bodily whole but my head's in a mess  
Fuelling obsession that borders psychosis  
__   
__It's a sad disease  
Creeping through my mind  
Causing disabilities  
Of the strangest kind  
__   
__Getting lost in the folds of your skirt  
There's a price that I pay for my mission  
A body in heaven and a mind full of dirt  
How I suffer the sweetest condition  
__   
__Taken in by the delicate noise  
Knocked to the ground by the subtle thunder  
Shackled and bound by the sound of your voice  
Wandering around in silent wonder___


	2. Fancy Meeting You Here...

            Nick Armstrong lazed at the edge of the water, the waves lapping at the Massachusetts shore.  Most of his friends, his circle, had moved away after graduation.  Cassie and Adam had both gone to the University of Massachusetts and were doing very well, still together of course.  The Hendersons had gone to California, wanting to get as far away from memories of Kori's death as possible.  Faye had gone straight to New York, working her way through several independent theatre productions until she got noticed; she was now filming something somewhere in Europe, no one really knew what or where.  Suzan had already received her degree in cosmetology and was working behind the scenes on a touring Shakespeare company.  It took months, but Melanie had convinced Laurel to leave New Salem.  They didn't go far, only to Connecticut, but they _had gone._

            Diana had stayed to take care of her father; she didn't want to leave him all alone in their big house.  She was slowly earning her degree in sociology through the local community college and Internet and correspondence courses.  Sean was simply too nervous to go anywhere.  He still thought Black John was going to return and take his revenge.  Nick and Deb, both living in the same house, had also stayed.  They worked at a local bike shop and eventually became part owners in the venture.  They had regular customers and steady business and not much to complain about.

            At this very moment, though, Nick thought he had plenty to complain about.  He often thought about Cassie, the first (and only) girl he'd ever loved.  His face contorted into a grimace as he thought about the word... _soulmates.  Cassie was destined to be Adam's, forever and ever, till the end of time, so mote it be, and amen.  The thought that there was one person out there for everyone weighed heavily on his mind.  His hopes of ever finding someone so near and dear to him had left with Cassie.  He and Diana had tried being together for a short while, but neither of their hearts' was in the relationship, so they had returned to simply being friends._

            A heavy sigh escaped his lips and Nick turned his head to look down the beach.  A curvy figure with long dark hair was walking along the shore and, for an instant, he thought Faye had returned.  There was no slink, however, no predator in this woman's gait, so he knew it couldn't be Faye Chamberlain, soon to be Hollywood starlet.

            He shrugged and shook a cigarette out of the pack in his pocket.  The slim white stick of tobacco quivered and he lit it, inhaling deeply.  His knees bent, forearms resting on them at chest level, he looked back out at the sea and didn't move again except to flick ash away from the tip of the burning cigarette.  Not until the girl was in front of him.

            Blaise had her hands firmly placed on her hips.  "No, Thea.  No way.  I am not going to go on a scavenger hunt for Daybreak.  _NO."_

            Soft blue eyes met steely grey ones as Thea tried to reason with her cousin.  "Blaise, it's one time and you know I wouldn't ask you normally... it's just, there is no one else.  Please?"

            Those hard grey eyes softened a bit as she looked back at the girl who had been like a sister throughout their life together and asked what exactly a "scouting mission" was.  Thea's face lit up in a smile, knowing she'd won.  "All you have to do is take this flight," and she held up tickets, "to Massachusetts and see if the rumors of a coven are true.  You don't even need to talk to them or, Goddess forbid, try to make them join Daybreak.  We just want to know that there really are witches there.  That's _all.  And," she held up a shiny platinum charge card, "all expenses are paid, courtesy of Thierry."_

            The raven haired Blaise snatched the tickets and the charge card from Thea's hands with a smile on her face.  "Well why didn't you _say so, cousin?  I would have agreed so much sooner."  With that, she had exited the small apartment in which Thea lived with Eric._

            And _that was how she found herself walking along a rather deserted beach looking out at grey-blue water which reflected so little of the meager milky sunlight breaking through the clouds in the overcast sky.  A harsh wind blew in off the water, making her squint against the sea mist it carried and her body convulsed in a shiver from the cold Atlantic air._

            She was mentally scolding herself for giving in so easily to Thea's request.  But then, beach – swimming, get a tan, party, right?  Wrong.  New England beach in late March meant clouds, wind, and general unpleasantness.

            Blaise drew the elegantly cut leather jacket tighter around her body and continued down the shore, spying a possible ray of sunshine in the distance.  A young man was perched on the beach, looking agitated and bored at the same time.  A lit cigarette dangled from his lips, the smoke whipping away from its tip immediately after being formed.  She adjusted her path so that she would cross in front of him as she walked.  When she did, she stopped and turned to face him, studying him with a critical eye.

            Nick lifted his head, a rare look of amusement crossing his face as he did so, "Can I help you?"

            Amusement flashed in the girl's eyes as well as she said, "Doubtful."

            He perked one dark brow at her as if to say "how do you know unless you ask?"  Blaise turned her back to him to look at the water and sighed.  "I really wanted to swim," then she turned and began to walk away.

            For some reason, her leaving sent a small wave of panic through Nick and he searched his mind for a reason to talk to her, get her to stay.  He found it.  "As a matter of fact," he called to her back, "I _can help you with that."_

            She stopped and turned, slowly retracing the few steps she'd taken in the opposite direction.  "Oh?" she asked, a small smile tugging at her lips.  "How do you propose to do that?"

            Nick nodded, answering mysteriously with, "I just can.  Meet me here after sundown tonight; wear your suit.  My name is Nick, by the way, Nick Armstrong," he held out his hand in the usual greeting.

            She looked at his hand and smirked, not extending her own.  "Okay Nick Armstrong.  I'll be here," she turned on her heel, walking away again.  He let his hand drop into the sand beside him.

            Nick called to her one last time, "And your name would be?"

            She stopped, hands stuffed in her jacket pockets, and turned her head so that he could see only half her face, the profile stunning and her mouth curved in a smile.  "Blaise Harman.  Until tonight, Nick," and she strode away down the beach.


	3. Through the Haze

            Nick pounded on Diana's door thinking _Please let her be home.  A slide and click signaled the unlocking of the door and Diana's earnest green eyes looked up at Nick, dancing with inner laughter. "Yes, Nick?"_

            He took a deep breath and let the words out in a rush, so that they sounded like one big word.  "I-need-a-spell."

            The green eyes went wide with surprise.  "_You?  Need a __spell?  You're joking, right?  Oh, you who hates magick?"_

            Nick stepped in through the door and shut it behind him.  "No, I'm not kidding.  I need to know what you girls did for the swimming party... _fast."_

            Brows a shade darker than her hair, that color of sunlight and moonlight woven together, pulled in to the center of her forehead and her eyes narrowed in suspicion.  "And, why, pray tell, do you need that, hmm?"

            Then Nick, stoic, unemotional Nick, felt some warmth creep into his cheeks and he looked at the floor, his mumbled answer sounding somewhat like "I met this girl..."

            Diana squealed and clapped with delight.  "A girl?  Who?  When did you meet her?  Where?"  She grabbed his arm and drug him upstairs to her room, flipping the switch to boot her computer once they got there.  She pointed at the bench by her window and said, "Sit.  Spill."  She took the seat at her desk, swiveling it to face him, an expectant look on her face.

            He reluctantly took the cushioned seat and sighed.  He told Diana about the girl he'd just seen on the beach, her beauty, her mystery; he left out the part about feeling panicked as she was walking away from him.  Diana was grinning from ear to ear by the time he was finished and she nodded, "Well then, I'll have to help you, huh?"  With that, she swung the chair back around, inserting the CD-ROM Laurel had finally completed.  The "Floppy Disk of Shadows" had quickly grown big enough to be the "CD-ROM of Shadows" and Laurel had made copies for the entire circle before she left for Connecticut.

            She clicked her way into the quick reference section Laurel had toiled away at for so many months, having constructed a comprehensive database of keywords and ingredients.  With no trouble at all, she found the spell they had used, _For Protection and Immunity from Cold Water.  She scanned the ingredients and looked at Nick from the corner of her eye.  "You're lucky.  I have all this stuff."  She smiled and printed the page with the spell.  Diana went to the curio cabinet which she still kept locked and opened it using the tiny gold key around her neck._

            Each of the small jars within contained a different substance and she pulled them out one by one as Nick read each from the list.  She barely had to glance at the labels to know which was which.  "Ginger root," he read and she pulled down a jar with golden yellow powder.  "Ylang ylang;" a vial with white powder.  "Rose hips;" a large Mason jar with dried rose buds.  Then he started naming crystals.  "Citrine;" she pulled a yellow, shimmering stone from a velvet pouch.  "Carnelian;" she picked the palest of the orange carnelians saying, "We don't want to make this poor girl hot and bothered... just warm."  The final ingredient was ruby chips and she sorted out a few small, but flashy, red stone pieces.

            "Diana, this sounds like a love spell."

            She smiled brightly.  "It is.  What else do you know that will raise a person's body temperature like that?"  She laughed at Nick's wide-eyed expression and hushed his protests before he could even begin.  "It's very muted, Nick.  Really.  Nothing else will happen.  Trust me," and, looking into her eyes, he couldn't do anything _but trust her._

            "All right, Diana.  Let's do this."

            They measured out the ingredients together, placing everything in a small mesh bag.  Then, Diana formed a small circle and called the elements, giving Nick the minimal protection he would need for the spell.  He recited the verse, concentrating on the small quartz in his hand to focus his power:

_Fire hot, fire bright_

_Protect our bodies from the night_

_Twirling dancing through the water_

_The waves ice cold, our bodies hotter._

            The small burst of power left his body and went through the quartz stone into the makeshift tea bag.  They dissolved the circle together and went to place the bag in hot water for two hours, long enough to infuse the liquid with the power in the ingredients.  "Now all we do is wait."  Diana fussed around the kitchen and invited him to dinner, but Nick declined, feeling too nervous to eat anything.  She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling; she was happy he liked a girl again.  She opened a cabinet in the kitchen and pulled out a small bottle of red wine and handed it to him.  "Here," she said, shoving it into his hands.

            "What's this for?"

            She shrugged and smiled, answering him with, "Oh, it's for 'just in case'."

            Blaise paced around the large hotel room, feeling very much like a caged animal.  That boy she'd met, Nick, it felt like he was in her blood.  Something about him... she had even almost lost her impeccable flair for the dramatic today when he offered her his hand, but somehow she'd kept her own hand plastered to her side.

            She knew she shouldn't go to meet him tonight, but she also knew that if she didn't, she would always wonder what sort of power he held over her to make her feel like this.  With a nod of her head, an affirmation to herself that she was going to go, she slipped into the bathroom to get ready.

            An hour later she emerged, the steam in the bathroom smelling of violets and her skin glowing.  She donned the black bikini with the gold accents unselfconsciously and pulled blue jeans and a red sweater over it.  Blaise flopped onto the bed and pointed the remote at the television, clicking through thirty channels of nothing on, five channels of Pay-per-view movies that she'd seen months ago, and three channels of poorly made, unimaginative porn.  Even from the blurred images visible through the snow, she could tell it was nothing special.  A smirk appeared on her face and she clicked off the revolting television, tossing the remote onto the nearby arm chair.

            A few scattered magazines kept her occupied until sunset, when she exited her room and followed the road to get to the beach.  Her wanderings led her to the bottom of a hill labeled Crowhaven Road and she started up the rising expanse of asphalt, admiring the houses along the way.  The bluff overlooked the sea and was thrumming with residual power.  _Someone had done magick here, powerful magick at that.  The source was years old, but the residual waves of energy were still startlingly strong.  Maybe this wasn't a wild goose chase after all... perhaps there __was an active coven in New Salem._

            She shook off the conflicting waves of good and evil rolling out of the gravel and debris at her feet and headed toward the path leading down the side of the bluff to the shore.  Shivering, her teeth near chattering, she didn't know how the hell this Nick expected to get her into the ocean to swim without some consequences... like hypothermia.  The minute her shoes touched down in the soft sand, she noticed the glowing ember of a cigarette floating in the darkness.  Approaching the tiny flicker, she saw the red glow was supported by Nick's right hand.  He paused, his hand half way to his lips, when he heard her coming.

            "You're late," he said, his voice laced with something like humor, but not quite.

            She trailed her feet through the sand, oblivious to the occasional grit slipping into her shoes.  "I know.  I took the scenic route," she pointed up at Crowhaven Road to signal which route that was.  Nick smirked and a short grunt escaped his throat as he followed where she was pointing.

            "Hardly scenic... or quaint, or cute, or any of those other words tourists tend to use.  It gets old when you've lived there your entire life."

            Blaise blinked and looked back up to the spot where she'd felt such strong magick, then back to Nick.  "Up there?  You've lived on," she searched her mind for the name on the sign, "Crowhaven?  You've lived there your whole life?"

            He winced, suddenly wishing he hadn't told her that.  Maybe she'd heard stories about the kids from Crowhaven?  No, she was just visiting, nothing else.  There would be no reason for anyone to tell her anything about Crowhaven Road.  Still, his answer came out short, sounding harsh, "Yeah, so?"

            The hostility was rolling off Nick in waves, no matter how he tried to control it, and Blaise felt it crashing over her, immediately going on the defensive.  "So I find people who've lived in one place their whole lives fascinating.  I myself probably attended," pauses, a look of deep concentration on her face, "ten different high schools in four years.  New people all the time.  I just can't imagine being with the same people for so long."

            He had obviously calmed at her explanation, but her interest had been piqued.  Why had he been so worried about her knowing he lived there?  She turned her head to the ocean water, a glowing sliver stream streaking across it where the low moon shone.  Through chattering teeth, she managed to say, "So, about swimming... it's a little cold, don't you think?"

            Nick took one last drag on the cigarette and tossed it away, tumbling end over end to land in the sand, smoldering a short distance away.  He smiled, the small action doing wonders to remove the brooding atmosphere which seemed to always surround him.  Blaise blinked in surprise, finding herself truly attracted to him.  _Strongly attracted to him.  Her mouth was hanging slack, but closed, and Nick's had fallen to a mirror image, the smile slipping away.  Each turned away at the same moment, Blaise turning toward the bluff and Crowhaven Road, Nick toward the dark water._

            He cleared his throat and held up a canteen.  "This," he said, twisting off the lid, "Is how we will go swimming."  He turned back to look at her and swallowed a fair amount of whatever was in the canteen.  He put the cap back on, then immediately began fanning himself, as thought it had suddenly gotten unbearably warm outside.  Nick gently tossed the canteen to her and she caught it with both hands, watching him curiously as he unzipped his leather jacket and shrugged out of it, letting it fall to the sand.

            Next, he pulled the charcoal grey sweater over his head, revealing a fitted white t-shirt through which Blaise could plainly see his smooth, yet sculpted chest.  Then, the t-shirt came off, too, and Blaise studied his torso with an appreciative stare.  As his hands moved to the button on his black jeans, having already kicked off his shoes, Blaise removed the cap from the canteen and sniffed experimentally.  Deciding it couldn't taste too badly, seeing as it smelled so good, she tipped it back and swallowed what was left.  Nick stepped out of his jeans, revealing black swim trunks with a cluster of stars at the bottom of the left leg.

            The liquid ran through Blaise, seemingly raising her body temperature at an alarming rate, but she didn't feel any effects other than the warmth.  She even felt like she could safely undress to her bathing suit without any ill affects, so she kicked her shoes off into the sand and unfastened her jeans.  Nick took a step back, watching her much as she had watched him – with obvious appreciation.

            He saw black and a flash of gold in the moonlight before her sweater fell to cover where her jeans had been a moment ago.  Her skin glowed a milky white and she reached down to pull the soft red sweater over her head, fully revealing the sparkling black and gold bikini.  So concerned with getting out of her clothes and into the water was Blaise that the oddity of the liquid didn't occur to her immediately.  Instead, she locked eyes with Nick, and then looked to the water, the challenge discreetly implied.

            Each took off for the water at a fast pace, Nick two steps ahead and splashing into the ocean first, Blaise following, having lost the short race.  She splashed into the water behind him, the shock of the cold not affecting her in the least.  Her mind raced in wonder at the miracle drink and then flipped to the real truth, substituting one "m"-word with another.  Not "miracle"... _magickal._

            She stopped splashing around immediately and simply looked at him, one elegant brow raised in question, wondering how she had missed the witchy signals until now.  Inclining her head toward the bluff, she asked him, "What happened up there? It's old, but the power is still coming out of the ground in _waves."_

            At that, Nick also stopped splashing and returned her look, something dark clouding his expression.  "Power?  Do you think you're some kind of psychic or something?  Maybe just into divination?  It's nothing that concerns you, Blaise," and he swam a little further out into the water.

            "You think I'm some sort of New Age obsessed freak?"  She laughed and pointed back at the canteen.  "How long did that spell take?  Did you call the corners or just set up a small circle?"  Her arms crossed in front of her chest, creating cleavage which Nick had to force himself not to look at.

            He stared at her face instead, eyes wide with surprise.  "You're a witch," the phrase more a statement than a question.

            "Yes, and I was sent here to find you.  There was rumor of a coven in New Salem, but no one knew anything for sure.  So, I've found you... where are the rest?"

            Nick's eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion.  "And, how do I know you aren't a witch hunter?  They tend to know as much, sometimes more, about witchcraft than the genuine article."

            Blaise smiled and lifted her hand out of the ocean, dripping with salty water.  Despite its being soaked, a small ball of fire appeared there, floating a moment before she allowed it to dissipate.  "I am a witch, I assure you."  He was again reminded of Faye, so completely, that for a moment he forgot to breathe, and he coughed when he inhaled because he swallowed sea water along with the air.  "So, about the others...?" she trailed off, expectantly awaiting an answer.

            Nick looked out to the moon, still rising in the sky, "Most of them are gone.  There are only four of us left on Crowhaven."

            Blaise blinked and bobbed in the water.  "Well, four is all you need for a strong circle, a small coven.  How many of you _were there?"_

            "Twelve."

            "Twelve?!  No wonder the power is still in the earth up there.  What did you _do?"_

            He shook his head, brushing her question aside.  "I'm not the one to be asking, Blaise.  How long will you be here?"

            "As long as it takes."

            He sighed.  "Fine.  I'll introduce you to Diana tomorrow."

            "Diana?"

            "One of our leaders.  She's still here," he turned his head to the wide expanse of water again, not wanting to discuss witchcraft or the history of his coven and Crowhaven.  "So, are you going to take advantage of this and swim or what?" and he flicked his wrist, splashing her with water.

            Blaise backpedaled away from him and tried in vain to return the splash, accommodating his need to get off the subject of his past.  Seeing that she would never win a battle, she decided running was her only option, so she twirled in the water and swam away as quickly as she could.

            "Why are you running away, trying not to get wet, when you're _in water!" he swam quickly after her, fully intending to drag her under the surface.  He caught up easily enough, powerful legs propelling him in front of her.  She looked over at him and stopped, drawing herself up in the water._

            "I surrender," she held out her hands in defense, panting from the exertion of swimming.

            "You... surrender?  We don't take prisoners," and he reached out to push her under by her shoulders.  Her hands came up to bat him away and he grabbed her wrists, grinning.

            Both expressions melted into confusion and surprise as they touched.  Each of their worlds dissolved, Nick's vision focusing only on Blaise and the thrumming cord connecting them and blinking through the pink haze obstructing that vision.  Blaise saw only Nick and felt as though she were being pulled into his dark eyes.  She saw the thickness of silver between them and focused around the haze the best she could.

            Blaise ripped her wrists from his grasp and pulled them in close to her body, looking almost wounded.  Nick simply stared at her, seemingly in shock, most likely in denial.  "What was _in that spell?"  The question came out angry, accusatory._

            "She said nothing would happen!  She promised.  Nothing happened when we used it before..." he was mumbling under his breath obscenities that he normally wouldn't say in front of a beautiful girl he'd just met.

            "Who?  Who helped you with it?"

            "Diana."

            "Well, then, let's go find her and find out what the _hell she did," she kicked off for shore, not liking the suspicions in her mind.  She'd listened to Thea talk about touching Eric often enough to know what that was, but her mind pushed the thought away, figuring it for some elaborate glamour weaved into the spell they used to swim._

            Nick followed, unenthusiastic, his mind replaying the last time he'd heard anything about a "silver cord" and the word "soulmates" turned into a distressing mantra as it repeated endlessly in his thoughts.

            As Blaise exited the water, she frowned at her clothes.  The effects of the spell were definitely still there and she didn't think that she could handle wearing the heavy sweater, so she pulled her jeans on over her wet suit and sat in the sand, taking out her hostility on her shoes.

            Nick followed, dressing himself in much the same manner, shoving his shoes on his feet with malice.  He picked up his t-shirt and sweater and wrapped the bottle of unopened and unneeded wine in his jacket, heading toward the bluff wearing only his jeans and shoes.  Blaise gathered her sweater and shook it out, trailing behind him to trek up the sloping path.


	4. Denial

            Each walked in silence until they reached the top and made a noticeable effort to swerve around the area of rubble infused with power.  Blaise cleared her throat and broke the silence, "What did happen there?"

            Nick shifted around, twisting his head as if his neck were suddenly stiff.  He dug in the pockets of the jacket in his arms to find his lighter and pack of cigarettes, lighting one in his mouth, the flame of the lighter dancing in the breeze.  Blaise waited patiently, thinking it best to allow him to carry out this ritual of nervous habit, walking quickly enough to travel beside him instead of behind him.  He glanced at her from the corners of his eyes and when he opened his mouth to speak, a cloud of smoke escaped and floated up to the sky.  "A battle," was his only reply.

            Blaise opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again, deciding it best to leave him smoking in silence.  He drew to a stop in front of a well-kept pale yellow house and looked at his watch.  It was close to midnight.  "Listen, Blaise, it's late.  Why don't we both go and sleep on it and meet again tomorrow?"

            She looked at him, meeting his eyes and forcing herself to keep looking at him.  A smirk appeared on her lips as she said, "And you really think you'll be able to sleep when you go?"

            One final drag on the cigarette and he tossed it away into the grass, following it with his eyes; giving him reason to look away without seeming intimidated.  "No, but that's no reason to make Diana suffer, too.  She's probably been in bed for..." he trailed off as the door was yanked open, Diana standing there in navy blue sweats.

            "Nick!  Why aren't you swim..." then she actually looked at him, hair tousled and dripping and body shirtless, "You're wet."

            Blaise watched as Nick's face softened and she felt jealousy flare up within her that this Diana, this blonde haired waif, could make Nick look like that.  Blaise stepped out of the shadows, her sweater still draped over her arm, comfortable in her bikini top and jeans.  Diana looked her up and down, a quick appraisal and an even quicker disapproval, pursing her lips.  She recovered quickly, though, as Diana does, and the smile returned to her face as she looked from Blaise to Nick once more.  "Nick?" she said, shifting her eyes to the dark haired girl, signaling an introduction was necessary.

            Diana had to guard her expression again, this time not to gape at Nick's nervousness.  He practically stammered the introductions, "Oh, um, Diana this is, uh, Blaise and Blaise this is Diana."

            Diana offered her slender hand and Blaise took it, offering a quick business-like shake and a nod in response to Diana's mumbled "Nice to meet you."

            Both Blaise and Diana turned their eyes to Nick and he looked back and forth between them, supremely uncomfortable.  He cleared his throat and looked to Diana, meeting her eyes.  "Diana, you said nothing would happen."  His voice dropped in pitch and volume as he spoke and he ended up looking at the ground.

            No longer able to catch Nick's eye, Diana looked to Blaise hoping to find some explanation there.  She met Diana's eyes, lucid green versus smoky grey, and held them.  But Diana found no answers there.  She stepped back from the door and opened it wide, ushering them into the living room.  Blaise seated herself at one end of the couch and Nick in a chair in the opposite corner of the room, as far from one another as they could get.

            Diana noticed this as she entered behind them, having locked up the front door again, but she didn't say anything about it.  She thought it best she let them talk first, especially since she had no idea of what was going on now or of what had happened at the beach.

            Blaise was watching Diana with barely masked hostility as Diana was watching Nick, concern plainly showing on her face.  She decided the silence had to be broken, so she spoke up, "Nick, what did you mean?  What did you mean by 'you said nothing would happen'?"

            He lifted his eyes once more to meet Diana's and he thumbed through the pockets of the jacket for another cigarette.  He stuffed it between his lips before he remembered he was a guest in Diana's house, taking it out and dropping it reluctantly back into the pack.  "You said the love spell was 'muted' and that it was safe.  It wasn't."

            Diana's brow puckered into a frown, not completely understanding.  "It... wasn't?"

            "No," came Blaise's voice from the couch, "it wasn't.  And we want to know what you added to it and how we can fix it.  _Now."_

            Whirling around to face Blaise, Diana's eyes flashed defensively.  "There was nothing extra in the spell.  Only the ingredients the spell called for, nothing else.  Its effects will wear off on their own.  And, Nick did the recitation himself.  There was a small... very small... enchantment on," she turned to Nick again, eyeing the lump in his coat and grabbing for the wine, "_this, but that's all."_

            Nick said, "Then what the hell was it?"

            At the same moment Blaise said, "I don't believe you," looking at the wine curiously, wondering what that had been for in the first place.  Surely he hadn't expected a romantic interlude with a girl he'd known for all of six hours.

            Diana ignored Blaise's cloaked accusation and studied Nick more closely.  "What the hell was _what?"_

            He grimaced and swallowed hard.  "A haze around us, a silver cord between us..." he trailed off not wanting to say more.  Not needing to say more.

            Enough of the spell had finally worn off that a small chill passed through Blaise's body and she pulled her sweater back on over her head, settling back into the couch just as Diana began to speak, to say the word neither Blaise nor Nick wanted to hear, "You mean you two are soulm..."

            "No," Blaise interrupted her fiercely.  "No, we are not now nor will we ever be _soulmates," she spit out the word as though it were an obscenity to her very existence._

            Nick nodded in quick agreement.  "She's right, Diana.  There's no _way..." an air of desperation weaved into his voice._

            "Oh?" Diana looked back and forth between them.  "Neither of you thinks so?  Then touch."

            Nick sneered and bared his teeth, his own swallow of the spell wearing off, forcing him to put the charcoal sweater on again.  Blaise frowned and sank more deeply into the cushions, a staunch refusal to move.  "No takers?" Diana asked from her position between them.  "Then you have no proof one way or another," she looked at their sweaters, each now on the body of its owner.  "The spell's effects have obviously worn off.  There is only one way to find out the truth.  Now, either you touch or you leave one another not knowing."  Her hands were on her hips, her face set in a stubborn expression that Cassie had taught her specifically to deal with Nick.

            He glared at her, his own expression one formerly reserved only for Faye, and stood, crossing the room in just a few paces, to sit on the opposite end of the couch.  He reached out a slow hand, extending it half way down the cushions, giving Blaise the option to take it.  She stared at it as thought it may strike given the opportunity, but she stuck out her own hand anyway, feeling compelled to do so.

            Her fingers dipped into the cup of his open palm and they were again drawn into the world of haze and silver cords.  Both sat in stunned silence, blinking through the clouds which had befallen their vision.  Diana watched each of them closely, seeing so much of Adam in Nick that her heart ached.  She turned her eyes to Blaise.  The girl's expression harbored a softness which it had been lacking since she'd arrived on Diana's doorstep and, unbeknownst to Diana, a quality which had been absent her face since childhood.

            Blaise withdrew her hand in a rare display of timidity and let it fall to the couch, Nick returning his own empty hand to his lap.  "Only a fool would believe in this."  Blaise spoke without raising her eyes.

            Diana spoke with no hesitation, "Then I am a fool.  I've seen it only once before, soulmates together, and now I'm seeing it again."

            Nick looked to Diana, mixed emotions on his face; he looked defeated, almost deflated, and yet somewhat hopeful at the same time.  "So what now?" his voice came out strained and genuinely confused.  Blaise remained still and silent.

            "What now?" Diana thought for a moment.  "You _can choose.  You can choose to stay apart, as far from one another as possible but," she looked pointedly at Nick, "both you and I know that the heart of a person who has found their soulmate can never truly belong to another."  The two friends shared a silent moment in which their common bond seemed stronger than anything else in the room – they had both lost a love to that love's soulmate.  "You also know that living without her, or her having to live without you, would be your own personal hell on earth."_

            Blaise's fist smacked into the couch and she bolted upright, heading for the door, repeating "No" under her breath.  She fumbled with the lock, mumbling obscenities at it, finally ripping it open and reveling in the rush of cold air on her skin.

            Nick and Diana watched silently from the living room, neither one trying to stop her; Nick afraid that touching her again may send her over the edge and Diana afraid to leave Nick alone.  Nick breathed out a simple question, "How many times does that happen when someone finds their soulmate?"  Diana immediately moved to his side, catching a glimpse of dark hair through the picture window, heading toward the beach.


	5. Oh My Little Runaway

            Blaise exited the house and turned, not toward town and her hotel room, but up the hill toward the bluff and the path to the beach.  She fumbled blindly down the sloping dirt path which led to the shore, the only light in the sky snuffed out as clouds covered the moon.  She got caught on a half-buried rock and tripped the final few feet to the beach, stumbling into the sand and landing on her hands and knees.  The sand and little bits of stone scraped open her palms and the dull, burning pain was just what she needed to take her mind off of Nick.

            She rocked back to a sitting position, one leg curled under her, and looked at her scraped hands, small drops of blood welling up in some places.  She waved them in the air, the cold helping to alleviate some of the stinging, then stood, making her way to the water on slightly unsteady legs.  Blaise dipped her hands into the salty water, wincing at the additional pain, but then sighing as the cold water numbed it away, cleaning out the gravel and sand.

            Once satisfied the dirt was gone, she stepped back from the water and plopped down into the sand, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, hands clasped together, numb and throbbing.  Her perception of time had been completely swept away, so she sat, not knowing how long she watched the waves.

            In Diana's living room, Nick sat staring at the carpet, eyes wide and unfocused.  Diana snatched a tissue from the box on the nearest table and shredded it, the bits falling into her lap as she watched her friend, worried about him.  "Nick?"

            He did not stir from his realm of silence, so Diana resumed shredding the tissue.  After a short expanse of time, he began to rub absently at one palm with his thumb, then the other.  They felt itchy, uncomfortable.  He clenched and unclenched his fists feeling a dull thud crawling up through his nerves – pain.  "Diana?  My... hands hurt."

            She looked up at him, grim amusement on her face.  "They hurt and you haven't done anything to them?"  He nodded an answer and she sighed, "Then Blaise probably hurt hers somehow."  Hearing "Blaise" and "hurt" in the same sentence was enough to make him move.  He stood from the couch in one fluid motion, heading for the door immediately.  "Nick," Diana called from the living room.

            "Yeah?" he turned to face the doorway through which he'd just exited the living room.

            "She headed toward the beach.  Don't push her, okay?  She'll come around."

            He nodded again, a quick silent answer which he wasn't sure Diana even saw.  He left the house and turned up the road toward the bluff, hurrying along the sidewalk.  Nick stopped at the overlook and searched the darkness of the beach, straining his eyes trying to find her.  A glimpse of glowing skin by the water showed him where she was and he clenched his fists again as the burning returned, followed by blessed numbness.  He watched as she retreated away from the water and sat to follow the waves with her eyes.


	6. Oh My Little Runaway, Part II

            Standing there watching her, time disappeared and he could feel her presence pressing at the edge of his mind.  His feet carried him to the path and he started on his way down to the beach.  Blaise heard the footfalls padding through the sand before she knew it was Nick.  She felt him in her mind, but was refusing to acknowledge his presence there.

            His eyes examined the back of her head, following the gently curving lines down to her waist where the wavy tresses ended.  Mesmerized by the breeze sweeping her hair back from her face and toward him, Nick blinked in surprise when she turned her head and he found himself looking into her eyes, even darker than usual.  Hurt was gleaming there and he winced to think that he was the cause of it.

            "Why did you follow me, Nick?" her voice dull and flat, toneless.  She continued to look wounded and held her hands captive within the sleeves of her sweater.

            He answered her question with one of his own, "What did you do to your hands?" as he absently rubbed at his palm with his thumb.

            Blaise took notice of the action and looked down at her covered hands, sliding them slowly from beneath the sweater sleeves to show him the small scrapes on her palms.  "I tripped, scraped them in the sand.  How did you know?"

            His eyes unfocused and looked past her to the water.  "I felt it."  Then he stepped forward, grabbing one of her wrists, his fingers going around the cloth over her skin.  He leaned over and did something he had only ever known one other person to do.  He kissed her palm, his lips brushing lightly along her skin just as Adam had done with Cassie when Portia's brother had hurt her.  The thrill, like fire in his blood, spread through his body from his lips.  The tingling heat that raced up Blaise's arm was pleasant, almost inviting, telling her to be held by him, to stay with him.

            She fought the urge to jerk back from him and instead pulled away slowly, enveloping her hands in her sleeves once more.  She murmured a "thank you" and looked away, feeling uncomfortable in front of a boy for the first time in her life.  Always on the offensive, controlling the situation, Blaise was unused to not having complete power over everything going on in her life.

            Nick drew himself back, surprised at his own boldness in kissing her hand.  When he spoke, his voice sounded soft, out of place in his ears.  "I have this sudden urge to hold on to you... and never let you go," he coughed and looked away, blushing.  He dug around in his pockets, again searching for his cigarettes, finding them and lighting one with a sigh of relief.

            A small smile appeared on Blaise's face as she stared across the blackness of the sea and when she spoke, her voice was just as soft as his had been.  "I have this sudden urge to let you."

            Nick closed the short distance between them and sat in the sand beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, the cigarette between his lips.  He was careful to lay his hand on her shoulder where the sweater covered her, wary of touching her bare skin.  She unconsciously snuggled in closely at his side, fitting under his arm perfectly.

            He continued to puff on the cigarette, savoring the nicotine in his system, knowing that had he not had his pack on him, he wouldn't be sitting still right now.  He also knew deep down that he should quit, but he didn't see that happening any time soon.  Drawing in one last breath, burning the tobacco down to the filter, he tossed the butt away, the wind picking it up and carrying it farther than he could have thrown it.  The now free cigarette hand looped around to enclose her in the circle of his arms.

            Blaise glanced down at the arm lying across her chest, then over at Nick's linked hands on her shoulder, then her head twisted around so she would be on eye level if he ever stopped watching the water.  He did.

            His head turned toward her, their faces so close when he did so that their lips brushed together for a fraction of a second, that moment in time seeming to stretch on endlessly in their minds.  Blaise pulled back, the smallest of spaces opening between them, and looked into his eyes, finding the same desire there that she knew was in her own.  She moved forward again, slowly, cautiously, to place her lips on his, closing her eyes in the tenderest kiss she'd ever experienced.  Nick sank into the kiss with her, surprised by the dawning realization that he was in her mind and she in his.

            Blaise clearly saw the girl he'd loved before and his losing her to her soulmate.  She caught no more than mere glimpses of the "battle" he'd spoken of; not enough to know what happened, and she didn't want to pry uninvited.  Nick, on the other hand, swam in a sea of darkness; the only shining light in Blaise's mind was a blond haired girl with whom he could tell she shared a sister-like bond.  He floated freely, exploring different things until a mental wall slammed up in front of him, blocking him from all her memories before graduating high school.  Being forced away hurt and he drew away from her physically and mentally.  "Blaise, why...?"

            She yanked herself out from under the protective circle of his arms and scooted back in the sand, appalled at what he'd almost seen.  Her life among humans, breaking the adolescent boys in high schools across the country... she couldn't let him see that.  He wouldn't want anything to do with her if he knew what she'd done.  Boys had been put in psychiatric wards because of her, lives had been destroyed.  "You can't... you just can't see that," shaking her head to annunciate the words.

            "It doesn't matter to me.  No matter what happened it doesn't..."

            She cut him off, "Yes, it does matter.  It matters to _me," she searched her thoughts for a way out of this conversation and found one.  It was a cold way to do it, but she had to.  "I have a plane to catch whenever I'm ready and I think I'll be ready in the morning.  I know there's a coven here, or at least there was, and that's all I was supposed to find out."_

            Nick looked physically ill at the prospect of her leaving, but he regained his composure somewhat and looked to her, nodding, "If you think you need to leave, then leave.  But," he pauses for a moment, "tell me where you're going?"

            She shook her head.  "I can't tell you Nick, but I will tell you what you need to know to find me.  Circle Daybreak.  That's all you need.  If you talk to the right person, they'll know," and with that she turned, kicking up sand in her wake, and walked down the beach, the way she had come that afternoon (had it only been that afternoon?) instead of back up to Crowhaven Road.  And that night, another first happened; tears welled up in her eyes at the thought of leaving in the morning.  Of all the times she'd moved over the last ten years, she'd never cried because she was packing up and moving away.  But now, when the only things she had to pack up were a few pieces of clothing into a singular suitcase, leaving New Salem seemed like the worst thing that could happen.

            Nick watched her go, solemnly fighting tears which wanted to break free in his own eyes, but he was successful in keeping them inside, as he had been for years.  He turned stiffly toward the path to Crowhaven again and walked slowly to it, repeating "Circle Daybreak" under his breath as he made his way home.

            Thea sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair at the airport terminal waiting for Blaise to exit her flight.  Her tanned legs were crossed, khaki shorts riding up higher than usual, and she bounced her foot in time to the music being broadcast over the loudspeakers.  The doors to the jet way opened and she spotted a dark head only a short distance back in the crowd.

            She stood and stretched, making her way forward to meet her cousin with a broad smile on her face.  Blaise looked at her, but didn't return the smile... in fact, she frowned more deeply, her eyes wide and looking spooked, as if she had been through some terrible ordeal in Massachusetts.  "Blaise?" Thea asked, concern overshadowing the smile.

            "In the car," was all she said, her throat sounding dry and closed up, making the words raspy.  She gripped her duffle bag in front of her, using both hands, and followed Thea to the parking area where Thea's car was.  The little white Neon looked prim and clean sitting in the space.  Thea unlocked the doors and Blaise tossed her bag in the back seat as she slid into the passenger side, buckling her seatbelt mechanically.  Thea slid behind the wheel, fastening her seatbelt as well, but barely taking her eyes off Blaise; she was acting so strangely.

            She navigated out of the airport parking lot and merged onto the highway, repeatedly glancing at Blaise from the corner of her eye, waiting for her to speak up since they were in the car.  "They're there," she said flatly.

            "Who?"  Not what Thea had been expecting.

            "The coven.  There are four of them, but there used to be twelve.  Most of them have moved away.  They're all our age.  I met two of the four who are still there," she stopped and pressed her lips together tightly, obviously not wanting to elaborate on that.

            Thea kept silent, respecting her wishes, knowing that Blaise would tell her eventually.  Blaise stared out he window, watching the scenery fly by and agonizing about how to tell Thea what happened.  "Thea, what happens when you touch Eric?"

            Taken aback, Thea's foot slipped off the accelerator and she had to fumble to find it again.  "What do you mean?  You know what happens, I've told you over and over again, trying to make you believe me."

            "I mean haze, sparkles, fireworks, silver cords..." Thea heard no more, suddenly confused.  Silver cord?  Okay, so she hadn't told Blaise _everything that happened, so why was she talking about the cord?  Thea thought it was the most personal of the connections in her bond with Eric, keeping them bound heart to heart no matter what.  Being so personal a thing, she kept it to herself, relishing the secret._

            She shook her head and interrupted her cousin, not even knowing what Blaise was saying now, "Wait.  Silver cord?  I never told you about that.  I know I didn't.  Where did that come from?"

            Blaise stopped, looking frightened, the very image of a deer caught in the headlights.  She twisted in her seat to look at Thea and closed her eyes again before speaking.  "I saw it."

            Not catching what Blaise was saying, Thea laughed shortly.  "You saw it?  You couldn't have.  Only the people it's connected to can see it..." she trailed off.  "Oh."

            "Yeah, 'oh'," she looked at Thea, far from happy.  They rode in silence again for a while.

            This time, Thea spoke first, "He's part of the coven?"  Blaise nodded.  "Lucky you, getting a witch for a soulmate," trying to lighten Blaise's mood a little.

            "Yes, lucky me.  Lucky me having been evil and vindictive in high school.  Lucky me he wasn't in my mind long enough to see who I really am.  Lucky me I pushed him away."

            Thea winced at the self-loathing in Blaise's voice.  She had never heard anything like it coming from her mouth before.  "What are you going to do?"

            "Do?  I'm not going to _do anything except stay here.  Two thousand miles seems a safe distance, don't you think?  I... I gave him enough information to find me if he ever wants to," she turned her eyes back to the window, now deep within the city and heading for Thea's place._

            "I want you to stay in our guest room, at least for tonight, okay?"

            Blaise agreed and she hauled her bag into the apartment.  Having not slept the night before, or on the short plane ride back, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.


	7. Not So Fast...

            The morning Blaise left, Nick went to see Diana again.  He knocked on her door and when she opened it, she saw him looking more unkempt than she'd ever seen him, dark circles under his grim eyes and his face just drawn and tired in general.  "She left, didn't she?"

            He swallowed thickly and nodded, "Can I come in?"

            "Of course, Nick," she stepped back and let him into the house.  Her dad was sitting in the living room, reading a rather large novel, and he waved at Nick.  Nick did his best to return the greeting and looked at Diana, desperately needing to talk to her.  "We're going upstairs, dad," she called as she was half way up the steps.

            Nick followed gratefully and took the seat by the window again.  This time, Diana sat on the other end of the cushion, watching him.  He explained what had happened on the beach, his voice barely above a hush as he related the kiss.  "She blocked me, Diana," he sounded devastated.  "I told her I didn't care what she'd done, but she left anyway.  And I don't even know how to find her."

            "She wouldn't tell you where she was going?"

            "No.  She said that 'Circle Daybreak' would be all I needed to know to find her, but it doesn't help at all.  I don't even know where to begin."  Nick watched as a light seemed to go on in Diana's mind.  "Diana?  You know how I can find her?"

            She nodded slowly, trying to remember exactly what she was thinking of.  "Last year... Cassie and I drove to Boston to visit this New Age Wicca type store.  At least, we thought it was.  But, when we went in, it was an honest to goodness _witch store.  We were surprised, but happy.  Then the girls behind the counter started talking to us about whether we were in a circle.  Circle Twilight, I think.  When we said no, they asked about Circle Midnight and we said no again.  They wrinkled their noses at us and mumbled something about 'Daybreak' and went into the back.  Cassie and I thought it was odd, but we didn't bother trying to find out anything."_

            Nick nodded, satisfied he had a place to start looking.  "Then it looks like I'm going to Boston.  I'll need the address for the store, okay Diana?"

            "You think you're going alone?  You're funny."

            "But, your classes... I can't take you away from that."

            "Sorry, no scapegoat for you.  You know I'm not taking any classes at the college this semester and I just finished my Internet course two weeks early.  I'm free till fall.  And you are stuck with me."

            He smiled for the first time since last night.  "Fine, you can tag along... besides, it would be a little cold to be driving my bike anyway."

            Diana returned the smile, "Oh, so now you want to use me for my car, too?"

            He shook his head, still smiling, "Whatever _Di," using the nickname she hated.  Sobering a little, he asked, "When do we go?"_

            "Give me till tomorrow to get things done around here, okay?"

            He nodded and stood, needing to get things in order at his place, too.  He stopped on his way out the door and turned toward her, "Thanks Diana."

            A soft smile appeared on her face, "Of course, Nick.  If you're going to this much trouble, I know how much she means to you.  What sort of friend would I be if I made you track down your soulmate on your own?"

            He simply waved her off and headed for his house, still smiling because of Diana, but hard determination set in his jaw.


	8. Good Morning Sunshine

            Blaise slept at Thea's house.  She slept for a day and a half, physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted from her trip to New Salem.  When she awoke in the middle of the afternoon, 36-hours after landing in Las Vegas, she looked at her surroundings, confused as to where she was.  Then, she remembered the flight, she remembered the car ride... she remembered _Nick.  Darkness clouded her vision as she fought against the depression that suddenly overwhelmed her.  She heard the soft click of the door to her room being opened and she blinked furiously, trying to recover from the jolt of memory._

            "Blaise?" Thea's voice called softly from the doorway before she stuck her head in through the door.  When her blond head popped through the opening, she smiled and said, "You're up, sleepyhead."

            Nodding stiffly, Blaise looked at her curiously.  "Sleepyhead?  What time is it?"

            Thea shook her head and laughed softly, crossing the room and sitting on the edge of the bed.  "It's three in the afternoon," Blaise's eyes went wide, "Friday."

            "Friday?" Blaise croaked.  "You're telling me that I slept for... a day and a half?"

            Thea nodded, "You were exhausted.  It's okay, I made sure things were all taken care of at your place.  Are you hungry or anything?"

            Feeling out her body experimentally, an odd aura about her mind after having slept for so long, she found that yes, she was hungry, but she was also very stiff from being still.  "Yes, food would be a good thing," she winced as she sat up and turned to place her feet on the floor.  "Was anyone looking for me?" she asked before she could stop herself.

            "No, Blaise," Thea told her sadly.  "I got in touch with some Circle Twilight girls in the area, just to see if anything had happened and to tell them if they saw him, to send him here..."

            Blaise interrupted her, "_Why?  Thea, if he comes here... if he's with me, it'll just ruin the things he has.  When I was in his mind, oh Thea, he pretends to be all moody but he's really happy in New Salem.  He has friends there and he even works in a bike shop with his cousin..."_

            Thea hushed her by raising a finger to her lips.  "Blaise, if he _is your soulmate, then he wouldn't stop looking for you until he found you.  Don't you see that?  Now that he knows you, he won't be happy unless you're together.  And the same goes for you.  Speaking of which, you look like death warmed over.  Let's get you fed and cleaned up, okay? Come on," Thea stood and offered Blaise a hand to get out of the bed with her stiff muscles._

            She just nodded numbly and followed Thea to the kitchen, sitting at the table and making herself a sandwich from the things Thea retrieved from the refrigerator; mechanically placing lunchmeat on a slice of bread and topping it with another piece of bread with mustard on it.  Thea set a mug of herbal tea in front of her and Blaise could smell the muscle relaxing ingredients and snatched it up, sipping at it carefully.  She felt the effects almost immediately, the herbs relaxing the muscles in her legs and back, making it easier for her to sit up straight.

            "Thanks, Thea for... everything."  She stood and walked off toward the bathroom to wash away the remaining stiffness in her body.  Borrowing some clothes from Thea's closet, she emerged in khaki pants and a hunter green sweater, so unlike her normal attire, and returned to sitting with Thea in the kitchen.

            Thea looked at her cousin, masking the pity in her eyes, knowing Blaise wouldn't want pity.  "He'll come, Blaise.  I know he will."

            "Yeah," Blaise replied, sighing heavily.


	9. Go West Young Nick

            Nick arrived on Diana's doorstep at nine the next morning, unaware that Blaise was entering her thirtieth hour of sleep.  Diana had been unable to convince her father that she'd be safe to leave on such short notice, so they had stayed one more day in New Salem, making concrete plans and final preparations to go to Boston.  Nick was anxious and tired, he hadn't been sleeping well.  Diana opened the door with her large duffle bag already slung over one shoulder.  Nick would have laughed at her trying to lug such a large load had he been in a better mood.  Instead, he took the burden onto his own shoulder without a word and turned toward her garage, wanting to get on the way as soon as possible.

            Diana thanked him for saving her shoulder and pulled her front door closed, the lock clicking into place.  She opened the garage door and they piled into the car, Nick putting her bag and his in the back seat and shutting himself into the passenger side, fastening the seatbelt into place.  Diana did the same in the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition, backing out of the garage, and pulling away to leave Crowhaven Road behind them.  "We're off..." she commented as they crossed the bridge to get to the mainland.

            "We are," Nick said quietly, looking at the other cars on the road and eventually staring blankly at the guardrail on the edge of the highway.  Diana clicked the radio on and they traveled the highway to Boston listening to the sounds of the alternative radio station she'd found.  Diana hated city driving, so her concentration was entirely focused on the road and the traffic around her.  Nick's thoughts were elsewhere... with Blaise, wherever she may be.

            She tossed a folded up printout at Nick which had directions to the shop and he navigated their way through the city, wincing every time another car came too close for comfort.  This was why he rode motorcycles, much less cumbersome.  Diana pulled into a dimly lit parking garage two blocks from the shop and she and Nick exited her car, the slamming of their doors echoing off the cement columns around them.  She nodded toward the stairs to the street and they walked the short distance to the store.

            "Not very well marked, is it?" he quipped as he looked at the plain door set into the side of a building, down a narrow side street.  The only ornamentation on the door was a black flower, looking more like an insignia than a work of art.  

            "Hardly... Cassie and I had so much trouble finding it the first time," she reached out and turned the knob to enter the store.  The walls were lined with jars and canisters and books of all shapes and sizes.  There was a real apothecary chest stretching the entire length of one wall and Nick knew it was full of all the things an everyday witch would need for everyday spells.

            A stunning girl appeared from behind the curtain of the back room.  Her straight black hair shone in the light and her golden skin gave the illusion she was of Egyptian royalty rather than a Boston native.  Her bright blue eyes swept over the two who had entered her shop.  She didn't recognize them, and that was generally bad.  People she didn't know either meant humans or out-of-towners.  Either could prove to be problematic.  She got the feeling these two were witches, though.  "Welcome, my name is Aya," short for Papaya, but she never, ever told anyone that.  "Is there anything I can help you find?"

            Nick answered without hesitation, "A person."

            Aya raised her brows in surprise, "A person?  There are lots of ways to find people.  Why come here?"  She found herself intrigued.  First, Thea Harman calls yesterday to tell them to be on the lookout for someone looking for Blaise, then these two show up in the shop needing to find a person.  Quite the coincidence, no?

            "Because the only clue I have is 'Circle Daybreak' and I've heard this is the place to come for talk of circles," he looked to Diana who was standing beside him, then back to Aya.

            Aya nodded, confident that this was the boy that Thea had been looking for.  She searched her memory for the name Thea had given her on the phone, "Nick, right?  You need to find Blaise?"

            Both Nick and Diana blinked in surprise and Diana looked to him, the words "Gee, word carries fast" on the tip of her tongue, but she remained silent.

            He shook off the feeling of surprise and met Aya's gaze, nodding once to answer both her questions.  She returned the gesture and went to the phone behind the counter, dialing a long distance number.  "Thea?" Aya?  "He came."  He's there now?  "What?"  He's there?  "Yes."  Alone?  "No, with someone."  Only two?  "Yes."  They'll have tickets at LaGuardia for the nine o'clock flight to Vegas.  "Okay."  Is he cute?  "Yes, Very."  She smiled and hung up the phone.  "All set," she looked to Diana finally, questioning her with her eyes.

            Diana started and moved forward, extending her hand, "I'm Diana, nice to meet you."

            Aya nodded and took her hand in a friendly handshake, and then she looked back to Nick, explaining everything Thea had told her on the phone.  Nick gaped at how seemingly easy this had been.  He had left expecting to be sent on a crusade of some sort, a quest, but here he was with plane tickets to her and he hadn't had to pay for anything but gas and some food.  He checked his watch; they had plenty of time before they would have to be at the airport.

            Looking back to Aya, he gave her a grateful smile, "Thank you."  He turned on his heel and motioned toward the door.  Diana started for it and he moved around her to hold it open for her.

            She turned back to Aya, "Merry part."

            Aya nodded again and returned, "And merry meet again."

            Nick and Blaise stepped back into the daylight and made their way to the main sidewalk.  Nick laughed and Diana laughed with him.  "We're going to Las Vegas, Diana.  And, she's there," he smiled.

            "Yes, Nick, she is.  But right now, we're here and," she looked down at her stomach, "I'm hungry."

            "Me too," he started scanning the area looking for a decent place to eat.  Across the street was situated a rather convenient diner.  He pointed at it, "There's a little diner.  Independent gigs like that are usually pretty good.  Want to give it a shot?"

            Diana nodded and they headed across the street.


	10. Humorous Interlude in a Boston Diner

This one's dedicated to Amy & Tam, without whom, this humorous interlude would not have been possible.  These characterizations are my own personal adaptation of how they are played in the Spellbinder RPG.  Sure, there are inside jokes, but most of them should be funny enough to laugh anyway.  Feel free to read this chapter or skip to the next one... it is not necessary to the plot.

Rating for this chapter: PG-15, minor homosexuality and swearing

            Nick and Diana approached the Diner, happy with anticipation.  The anticipation turned to trepidation, though, as they got closer, looking curiously through the windows.  The place seemed to be filled with the most random assortment of people ever to have the displeasure of knowing one another.  Diana felt a very Star Wars moment come over her and she said, "There has never been a more wretched hive of scum and villainy... we must be cautious."  Nick burst out in laughter and entered the Diner, holding the door for Diana behind him.

            The first thing that caught them off guard was the inhuman quality, the beauty, that radiated from nearly every person in the room.  But then, Nick noticed just how strange things were.  They stood, gaping in the doorway, taking in all the things that were happening.

            In a far corner sat four redheads at the same booth.  Fades into their conversation...

            "Louise, you're being ridiculous," Kait said with some ferocity.  "There is no good reason why one person would need two naked portraits.  I wouldn't paint another one, even if he asked me to."

            "Fred," Bonnie, looked at Kait feeling exasperated, "I didn't say he wanted one done, I said I wanted you to redo it so I could have one!"  Kait laughed so hard that her face nearly matched her hair with its flaming redness.

            "You live with me and I refuse to have it in my apartment."

            Garnet watched in amused silence, swirling the straw around a glass of ice water, the cubes tinkling on the sides.  Poppy, on the other hand, could not stay silent.  "Who?!  Who did Kait paint naked?  And why does Bonnie want one?!"

            Kait smirked, "Who did I paint naked which time?"

            Poppy openly gaped at her, "More than one person?  Okay, who does Bonnie want the painting of?"

            Bonnie glared at Kait, daring her to answer Poppy, and to her absolute horror, she did.  "Kierlan."

            Poppy dissolved into giggles and Garnet even snickered a little.  Bonnie threw the entire napkin brigade at Kaitlyn, hoping for a hostile takeover, but Kait was still sitting upright when all the napkins had fallen to the ground having lost the battle.  Even with the scattered napkins lying on her lap, she had the sudden urge to turn to look at the door.  She felt eyes on the back of her neck and felt an overwhelming need  to tar and feather someone...

            Nick's gaze shifted around the room and landed on another booth, this one housing one completely beautiful platinum blond boy and a dark haired person in his lap... yes, a dark haired boy.  Fades to the booth...

            "Cranapple," Gabriel said with a stubborn edge in his voice.

            "Crancherry," Julian replied, with much the same vehemence.

            "Fine, cake," Gabriel began anew.

            "No, pie," Julian sent back, not missing a beat.

            Gabriel wrapped his arms around Julian's neck and mock glared at him.  "You are so fucking difficult."

            A smirk appeared on Julian's face, "That's odd; people usually accuse me of being easy," staunchly remaining as contrary as possible.

            Gabe tilts over him and plants a kiss firmly on his lips.  "Hardly."

            Julian pushes him off his lap and Gabe slides onto the seat of the booth with a sharp smacking sound as his too-tight leather pants contact the vinyl of the seat.  He wrinkles his nose at him.  "Pie."

            Gabe grabs Julian's hands and looks him in the eye, "Oh, let's go... cake."

            And with that, they poof out of existence, leaving an empty booth behind them.

            Nick blinked at the disappearing act and shook his head, eyes roaming around the Diner once more, and he found himself looking at a coed booth.  Of course, it's one guy and two other girls; an entirely different situation in itself. Fades to the booth...

            Caroline pouted, unashamed, "Please, Kier."

            Kierlan looked at her, not the least bit affected by the pout, "Absolutely not."

            "Oh, come on," Gisele chipped in.

            "No, neither of you can drive my car. No," Kier crossed his arms in steadfast resolution.

            Smiling, Caroline leaned over and gave him a quick, chaste kiss on the cheek, "Pretty please with a chocolate-covered cherry on top?"

            "No."

            Gisele thought she'd try one last time, "Umm, pretty please with a chocolate-covered me on top?"

            "N... Oh?  Hmm..." Kierlan paused in thought, intrigued by the last proposition.

            Both rolling their eyes, Caroline and Gisele stood and moved to the side of the booth, looking down at him.  They looked at one another, nodded, then back at him, saying, "Manwhore," in perfect unison.  They left him sitting there, dumbfounded and alone in his booth.

            In the final occupied booth sat a dark haired, dark eyed, brooding person.  Nick wondered if that's how he often looked to people when he was sitting deep in thought.  An equally dark haired woman was sitting across from him, looking bored to tears; that is, if she ever cried.  Her golden honey eyes passed over them for just a moment before returning to the guy opposite her.  Fades to the booth...

            Damon sighed heavily, "Bored."

            Lily mimicked his sigh, "I'm more bored."

            "You couldn't possibly be more bored than me," Damon glared at her.

            "Why couldn't I?" Lily asked incredulously.

            "Because I'm older than you and have had more time to get bored with watching the events of the Night World unfold."

            "That's no reason to say my boredom couldn't match up to yours," she sighed heavily once more, showing just how bored she actually was.

            Damon accepted the challenge and sighed just a little more deeply than she, not conceding the status of "most bored."  She glared at him this time and looked around the Diner, agitated.  "I'm bored and hungry.  This place bites," she smirked at her own joke, "Let's go find someone worth sinking our teeth into."

            He nodded, agreeing, though still looking bored.  "Fine, Lily."  They stood and exited the Diner, walking past Nick and Diana as they did.

            Nick and Diana had both seen enough to be frightened, not only of what may happen should they stay any longer, but of the people here in general.  This seemed to be a gathering place for people with various mental problems.  Little did they know this was a calm evening at the Diner.  As they were turning to exit, Diana's shoe crunched and she looked down, finding she had effectively crushed one of the largest cockroaches ever seen in the city of Boston.  She shrieked and bolted out the door, Nick following close behind her looking at the dead insect with disgust.

            "Nick, McDonald's sounds pretty good right about now."

            "I couldn't agree more.  Let's go; I think I saw golden arches down the street," they headed away from the Diner quickly, feeling a little more than disturbed.


	11. The Waiting Game

            Blaise returned home shortly after having lunch with Thea.  Even with the sleep she'd gotten and Thea's tea, her bones felt tired and her body protested the short walk to her front door from the car.

            Protesting body or not, Blaise was completely awake, though she wished she could slip back into the glory of unconscious dreaming.  Awake, all she could think about was kissing Nick, the wonder and the tenderness she felt in his arms when they were around her.

            Thea had received an urgent phone call and told Blaise she would have to go somewhere late that evening – around nine.  Blaise had waved her cousin off, saying she was planning on going home soon anyway.  With another round of "thank you"s, she had packed up and Thea drove her home.

            Now that she was there, she desperately wanted to be anywhere but her apartment.  She had nowhere to go, though   - Thea wasn't home - so she sat, unavoidably bored and making her depression worse.  Her mind was playing an infinite loop, making her relive kissing Nick, over and over.  Every touch and every feeling seeming more intense than life's everyday sensations.  Anyone who knew Blaise, or even knew _of her, would have been stunned to see her on her couch, a wistful look on her face._

            Thea left her, worried, but knowing she would be okay – if not now, then in an hour when Nick would be knocking on her door.  She smiled to herself in the fading light of day, driving once again to the airport.

            Nick and Diana ate their processed fast food in silence, still feeling a little oddly about their short visit to the diner.  But then, who wouldn't?  Diana dipped a fry into her chocolate milkshake, one of her more disturbing habits in Nick's opinion.

            "Nick," she said as she dug the last fry out of the box, "are you ready for this?"

            "No," Nick answered without hesitation.  Diana looked at him in surprise.  "No, I'm not ready to love someone the way I already love her.  I'm not ready to change my life by adding someone to it.  But, I'm willing to try to get ready."

            Diana nodded, truly impressed by his willingness to work things out with Blaise.  How many times had she seen him disappear into his shell when dealing with girls?  Any girl... And now, here he was, chasing one down because he loved her.  Diana really couldn't wait to call Cassie.

            Nick checked his watch frequently, anxious to get to the airport.  They had asked at the counter how long it would take to get there and the girl had told them to allow at least tow hours with all the traffic on a Friday.  That meant they had to get on their way around five.  It was one.  "One o'clock," he groaned.

            "Oh, come on, Nick, we're in the city, let's explore a bit.  I'm sure there's something we can find to do for a few hours."

            They found something.  An arcade, glowing and flashing with neon lights, loomed ahead of them.  They had exited the McDonald's and just started walking.  The arcade had signs plastered in the windows "Play all day, $10!"  Diana clapped and drug him inside, ignoring his protests that he would just stay outside and smoke.  "Not for three hours, you aren't.  Come on," and she tugged him over the threshold of the door.

            "Diana, it's an arcade... I hate video games."

            Too bad, I'm buying, let's go," she kept a tight grip on his arm and took him to the counter where Diana paid for two all-day tokens.

            "This really isn't my idea of a good time," Nick said, even as she was hauling him to the _Jurassic__Park__ shooter._

            She grabbed up the red gun and he reluctantly took the blue.  Taking a few hesitant shots at the approaching velociraptor, he found out his aim wasn't all that bad.  In fact, they sat long enough to defeat the entire game.  By the time they finished, Nick was acting like a normal person in an arcade, yelling and whooping when something good happened and swearing when he got hit.

            Diana just sat back and laughed at him, glad he was having a good time.  When the victory screen popped up and the credits started to roll, the small audience around them clapped and they retreated from the game, returning the guns to the bolted-on holsters.

            "Thanks, Diana.  Shooting something to bits was just what I needed."  Diana nodded in agreement.

            "I know."

            Nick smiled and checked his watch: 4:45.  "Diana, it's time to go!  Let's get back to the car."  He nearly dragged her down the sidewalk of two city blocks, back to the parking garage.

            "All right, all right," gasping to keep up.

            Diana and Nick crawled back into the car and they were on their way to LaGuardia.

            Thea parked close to where she had been to get Blaise and hurried into the terminal, looking at the light board to find the gate number.  She had a few minutes before the plane taxied to the jet way.  She stopped off at Starbuck's and ordered a tall mocha with a shot of raspberry syrup, then moved on to the gate.  Once again, she sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs and played the waiting game.  This time, a makeshift welcome sign bearing the name "Nick" was lying in her lap.  When people started to flow through the gate, she stood, holding the sign in one hand, the coffee cup in the other.  She felt silly displaying the sign with his name, like some kind of limo driver, but others were doing the same, so she smiled, hoping for a good first impression.


	12. Coming in for Landing

            The flight to Las Vegas was uneventful aside from Diana tipping her club soda over into her lap and needing to change into the pants she had in her carry-on.  Nick laughed at her, trying to stifle the sound behind his hand as Diana glared at him, wet pants and all.  Nick stared out the window during the landing and watched the sand below, drumming his fingers impatiently on the armrest as the plane taxied to the gate.  When he stood to exit the plane, he bumped his head on the stewardess call button.

            "Ow..." he rubbed the spot absently and moved to get their bags from the overhead compartment.  They pushed their way to the front of the plane, hips brushing the side of a seat now and then and being jostled into one another in the crowd trying to make its way out to the jet way.

            "Nick, are you sure you're ready for this?" Diana repeated her question from earlier.

            He smiled and gave her the same answer, "No, I'm not sure I'm ready for any of this, but I'm going to try."

            They stepped down off the plane onto the carpeted surface of the hallway which led to the airport terminal.  Diana tugged on his sleeve, signaling she could handle the relatively lightweight backpack and she took it from his arm, shrugging into it and adjusting the straps on her shoulders.  Nick hiked his own duffle bag higher up on his shoulder and quickened his pace at seeing the aluminum molding separating the jet way from the rest of the airport terminal.

            Diana hurried to keep up with him, the green and blue backpack bouncing on her butt and making her shirt ride up over the small of her back.  They broke free of the crowd upon entering the rather large terminal and Nick scanned the crowd, searching for a crown of soft dark hair, finding none.

            There was once again a soft tug at his sleeve and she pointed at a petite girl with blond hair holding a sign that said "Nick".  He perked one brow and walked toward her slowly.  "I'm Nick, but... you aren't Blaise," he finished sounding confused.

            The girl smiled, "You're an observant one.  Of course I'm not Blaise.  I'm Thea, her cousin."  The name struck a chord in Nick, she was the one Aya had called from the shop in Boston.  She was also the one he had seen in Blaise's mind.  The girl who had been Blaise's only light; the cousin with whom she shared the sister-like bond.  "And you," she pointed at him with a cup of Starbuck's coffee, some of the liquid sloshing out onto the lid through the hole in the top, "Are a surprise for Blaise."

            "I'm a surprise?  That didn't work out too well last time."

            "Oh, don't worry, it will this time, I'm sure," she hadn't stopped smiling.  Aya had been right.  He's very cute.  Her eyes drifted to Diana, suspicion roiling in her stomach, but she suppressed it.  Thea turned and let the sign drift into an unoccupied chair behind her.  She stuck her hand out for an official greeting, and then turned to Diana.  "I was wondering who the second person would be... and you are?"

            "Diana," she said, smiling and taking Thea's hand.  She had a feeling she could get along very well with this girl, given the opportunity.

            Nodding, Thea looked between the two of them.  "Do you have any bags we need to pick up?"  Nick and Diana both nodded, so they went to the luggage carousel and collected Diana's duffle bag, following Thea to her car.

            They arrived at Blaise's house after an interrogation session in the car.  Nick asking questions about Blaise which Thea didn't want to answer, feeling that Blaise should be the one to answer them.  Thea asking questions about the coven in New Salem which Diana didn't feel comfortable answering without her co-leaders beside her.  Diana asking questions about witchcraft which Thea had to tread lightly to answer without divulging the Night World.  She didn't want to add vampires and shapeshifters to the information that Nick and Diana had to deal with right now.  She intended to let Nick focus entirely on Blaise.

            Nick stared out at the red door of the white townhouse.  Number 429 in this particular row of connected buildings.  Diana pushed his shoulder gently, "Go, Nick.  She's in there."

            Thea nodded, "Do you want me to wait?  I can just take Diana to my place.  I'm sure she has lots of questions," she smiled at Diana as she said this.

            Swallowing hard, Nick managed to say, "Yeah, okay," and he stepped out of the white Neon, grabbing his duffle bag up and slinging it over his shoulder again.

            Thea pulled away from the curb after Diana switched to the front seat and Nick watched with a growing sense of despair as the taillights disappeared into the night.  He ran a hand through his dark hair and approached the steps cautiously, already feeling her at the edges of his mind.  She felt sad, alone... the same as him.

            The gold knocker below the 429 on the red door glowed in the dimness of the streetlight on the opposite side of the road.  He reached out an unsteady hand and rapped the knocker on the door three times, waiting and searching through his pocket for his comfort food – cigarettes.

            He pulled the pack free of his jeans and lit one between his lips, inhaling once and calming immediately... that is until the door in front of him was yanked open.


	13. Like a... Virgin?!?!

            Blaise lifted her head suddenly at the knock on her door.  She knew her eyes were puffy and bloodshot from crying and that her hair was a rumpled mass of waves, but she didn't know who would be knocking on her door at ten o'clock at night other than Thea, so she went without any further concern toward her appearance.  Her fingers went to her temple and rubbed there, trying to massage away the dull light that had appeared at the edge of her mental vision.  The fatigue of her mind from crying so long would not let her recognize the glow for what it was.

            Regardless of her not caring how she looked, she didn't really want Thea to see her with red and puffy eyes, so she kept her eyes trained on the ground when she opened the door.  "What is it Thea..." she trailed off seeing the shoes of the person standing on her "Welcome" mat.  Black Doc Martens, ones she'd seen before, only they had been half submerged in sand the last time.  Her eyes slowly followed the long legs clad in black jeans to the hem of a leather jacket, following it up to a sculpted jaw line and lips she wanted to kiss.  Finally, her admittedly bloodshot and puffy eyes met Nick's wide unblinking ones.

            A small smile touched those kissable lips, "Hello, Blaise," his voice was low and almost seductive.

            "How...?" she stuck her head out her door and looked up and down the street, not seeing anyone or anything else about.

            "'Circle Daybreak' was all I needed to find you.  And I did.  You didn't actually think I'd let you run away, did you?"  He let the bag fall from his shoulder and lay one hand on her face, unyielding to the haze sucking him in.

            He caught tendrils of her thoughts: _"...oh Goddess, I look like hell," "...was only gone for two days and I missed him SO much," "...I'm home now."_

            His other hand went to her other cheek, cupping her face in his hands and looking at her.  "You look beautiful... I missed you too... and this is the first time I've ever been out of Massachusetts, but I've never felt more like I belonged."

            She looked up at him in wide-eyed wonderment.  "Nick," she began softly, "I didn't want you to leave for me.  What about your friends, your shop, your circle?"

            A look of disbelief flashed in his eyes, "You really think I'd be happy there without you?"

            "You always were before."

            "No I wasn't," he replied quickly.  "I was _never happy there.  Ever."_

            Blaise blinked at him for a moment, taken aback by the vehemence in his tone.  She shook her head and backed out of his hands on her face.  She rubbed at her eyes, knowing that she did look like hell, regardless of what Nick said, and she opened her doorway, motioning him inside.  He grabbed up the duffle bag and stepped gingerly over the threshold into her house, feeling as though he'd broken more than one barrier by doing so.

            "You asked me how," he said to her from the hallway ahead.  He quickly recounted visiting the witch shop in Boston and Blaise connected Thea's phone call with the one Aya had made and wrote a mental note to severely bludgeon her cousin, and then shower her with thanks and praise.  "Thea picked us up at the airport and brought me here.  Diana is staying with her and I can too if you want.  It's just... I wanted to see you alone first."

            "No, no... you can stay here, just," she held up one finger to signal him to wait a minute as she slipped into the bathroom off the main hallway.  Looking into the mirror, her hair did not seem the tangled mess she supposed it would be, but it fell in rather tame waves around her face.  Her eyes, on the other hand, _were quite puffy and she was grateful to Nick for not asking her if she had been crying.  She splashed cold water on her face from the sink and searched her cupboard for the small pot of under eye serum she'd made.  She found it and applied a bit under each eye, watching as the puffiness visibly reduced._

            She emerged and sighed, "Much better.  No more looking like hell," she smiled at him.

            His smile grew broad and he shook his head.  "No more being beautiful... now you're gorgeous."  She found herself wrapping her arms around his neck, enthralled by his stream of honest compliments.

            Pushing her body up, leaning forward on her toes, she kissed him softly, keeping her mind to herself but sharing her love for him.  _"Nick... I want you to stay with me," she sent to him mentally.  A sudden wash of yellow nervousness flooded Nick's mind and Blaise stifled a chuckle.  Fate had soulmated her with a virgin._


	14. The Cheesy & Romantic End

            Drifting through the dark hues of Nick's mind, surrounded by navy blue, deep maroon, and rich dark gold, Blaise whispered to him, her tendrils of bright red and orange streaking like fire through his mind.  _"Nick... never?"_

            A low, embarrassed chuckle criss-crossed in her thoughts, lightening the navy to a sky blue for just a moment.  _"Never.  I'd tell you I'd been 'saving myself' but it's not true.  There was just no one I wanted..." he paused for a moment in his thoughts and met her eyes.  __"Until you."_

            She smiled softly at him, the feeling something entirely new for her lips.  Her cruel smile, her knowing smile, the scheming behind each, had all been perfected.  The softness she felt was something almost entirely new, and not entirely unwelcome.  "Flattery will get you..." she finished the phrase in his mind, _"everywhere."_

            Nick was again drawn to the recesses of her mind, reeled in by the mystery and pain there.  He wanted nothing more than to help soothe that pain away.  This time, Blaise opened her past to him, allowing him to see all the lives she's wrecked, the pain she'd caused.  He sorted through these gently, not allowing any of it to cause him to pull back in shock.

            Finally, when Nick came to the memory of Thea finding Eric, Blaise's overwhelming sense of loss washed over him.  Her feelings had been a confusing mess, mad at Eric for taking her _sister away from her, happy for Thea that she'd found the one person she was meant to be with, and jealous that she thought she would never find her own._

            They had somehow found their way to the couch and Nick was holding her cradled in his lap.  Her head pressed into his shoulder, her forehead resting along his neck.  The fingers of his right hand were tangled in her hair and he breathed deeply, the scent of violets and roses invading his senses.

            "You smell nice," he murmured into her hair softly.  "_And I've never wanted anyone so badly in my life," he added in her mind._

            "You're sure?  Even seeing how much being with me can hurt someone... you still want me?"  An unsteady shake invaded her words, the uncertainty there something no one had ever heard coming from Blaise.

            "Of course I do," he leaned back into the couch, looking at her, watching her eyes to make sure she understood.  "I told you your past wouldn't matter to me.  What's done is done."

            She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down so that their lips were together again.  "_Oh, yes, I still want you," his mental words sounding breathy, needy.  He could tell she was feeling the same way as she slid off his lap, landing gently on the plush carpet and tugging at him to follow her._

            She led him down the hallway to her bedroom, the most luxurious room in her house.  Blaise, of course, spared no expense when furnishing the room.  A king size bed with an ornately carved cherry-wood headboard was covered with red satin sheets.

            How many times had she seduced someone into coming home with her since she'd moved in to this house?  She didn't think she'd be able to count the number on her fingers alone.  This, though, this would be the first time she knew she'd remember every detail.

            She walked backward toward her bed, holding his hands and guiding him back until her calves met the mattress and seated her abruptly on the satin sheets.  Nick's breath caught in his throat at the prospect of being in her bedroom and his eyes were wide with wonder.

            Blaise pushed herself back up off the bed and slid her hands under his leather jacket, helping him shrug out of it, the coat falling to the floor, forgotten.  Nick's arms wrapped around her waist and he drew her in close, leaning down to kiss her.  His hands roamed hesitantly over her body, coming to rest at the bottom hem of the green shirt she'd put on at Thea's.  He pressed against her for a moment, his excitement obvious, and then he lifted the shirt over her head, revealing her breasts in the dim light.

            He hadn't expected her to be braless, but here she was, completely topless in front of him.  Blaise laughed in his mind at the stunned relief he felt.  "_I thought I was going to have to figure one of those things out," he sent to her, his own mental laughter lacing his thoughts with amused orange._

            "_I'm sure you would have done just fine," she sent back.  This time she pressed into him before lifting his black t-shirt off, revealing his absolutely smooth chest.  Her hands slid down his sides and she hooked her fingers under his waistband, sliding around to the button on the black jeans.  Cool grey eyes again met warm brown, mischief tinting the grey with a soft blue.  Her dexterous fingers moved the button through the hole in the fabric and slid his zipper down.  Without shifting her gaze from his face, she gave the jeans a shove – enough to move the material beyond his hips and send it crashing to the floor.  He sidestepped out of the jeans and kicked them away, standing now in only dark red cotton boxers._

            Nick slid his hands down the front of her body, lingering for a moment on her breasts, then continuing down to the button on her khakis and flicking it open.  It seemed to Blaise that he'd left all the nervous feelings behind, and that was fine.  The khakis fell to her ankles and he smiled at her, giving her shoulders a light push.  She fell backward onto the bed, her knees bent and legs dangling over the side.  He leaned over her, supporting himself with his palms at either side of her shoulders; he moved in closer, slowly.  Making as if to kiss her again, he veered to one side and kissed her neck below her ear, trailing kisses down to her collarbone and to the pale skin of her breasts.

            Blaise smiled and her eyes drifted shut.  "You're sure you've never done this before?" she mumbled.

            "Positive," he breathed out, his words warm against her skin.  His hands drifted to her panties as he continued to cascade light, teasing kisses all over her chest.  The gentle glide of his fingers over her hips sent sparks and shivers racing down her spine and she raised herself up off the bed to free the last scrap of clothing on her body.  Pulling back, Nick stood up straight and removed his boxers, his own last piece of clothing.

            Pushing off the floor, Blaise repositioned herself to be fully on the mattress, watching Nick closely.  She smiled and held her arms out to him, seeing the slow flush of embarrassment creep into his cheeks.  He positioned himself over her and laid gently on top.

            He told himself he should draw it out more, but his body was protesting; it didn't want him to wait any longer.  Now his mind was also lit by fiery reds and oranges, complementing Blaise's own.  She could feel the conflict between his mind and body and she soothed his thoughts.  "Go ahead, Nick.  We'll just say you owe me later."

            An almost wicked grin spread across his face and he lifted up and back, sliding into her slowly as he came down.  Her breath hissed in quickly at the initial pleasure-pain, then relaxed into its normal, gentle rhythm.  "_Are you okay?" his mind called to hers, clearer than ever before._

            "_Of course I am," her own mental voice replied.  She urged her hips forward against him, signaling she really was fine, and he took the hint.  He began to move, creating a rhythm all their own.  Blaise hadn't expected anything long or even strenuous, she'd been with virgin guys before and they had a habit of being rather quick their first time 'round._

            Nick continued to move slowly, but could not hold back for long.  Soon, his speed had picked up and his breathing had increased to match.  His forehead rested against hers, bringing their lips together every so often for a brief, but entirely intimate, kiss.  At the last kiss, his lips slid down her neck and remained parted, resting on her collarbone.

            Blaise could feel the tension rising in her own body, so quickly yet not surprising to her at all.  Her nails dug into his back, not breaking the skin, but leaving crescent-shaped impressions there.  She found herself wondering if it was the initiative of the soulmate bond that they climax together or if it was just happening on its own.  Nick shuddered on top of her and his teeth scraped against her neck at the same time she felt herself arch up off the bed in her own release of orgasmic tension.

            The entire act took less than five minutes, but it was the most intense and pleasurable five minutes Blaise ever spent in a bed.  She no longer cared whether their bond was responsible or not, all she could think about was the blinding platinum heat that flashed between their minds when they were together so completely, so openly.  Nick moaned and shifted around on top of her and she held a finger up to his lips.  "Don't," she whispered to him, her eyes soft and a small smile playing on her lips.

            "Don't what?" he asked, rather puzzled in his euphoria.

            "Just don't move."

            "Oh," he replied simply.  He then relaxed and let his head fall to the fluff of the pillow beyond her shoulder, his body still covering hers, their breathing slowing together.

            "I love you, Nick," she whispered hoarsely, her voice thick with the emotion in it.

            "I love you, Blaise," he said, even as his eyes were drifting shut.

            Each fell asleep, comforted simply by the other's presence in the bed.


End file.
